Dearborn

Farah Al Qasimi’s practice makes visible the contemporary, globalized post-internet culture that surrounds us and defines our current condition. She describes her work as “a sort of broken telephone game of cultural interpretation,” highlighting the hybrid cultures that her practice simultaneously documents and questions.

Richly detailed images by Al Qasimi, both quotidian and uncanny, depict domestic interiors, people, commercial spaces, and street scenes. The photographs presented for the Arbutus Greenway Billboard Public Art Project this year were shot in Dearborn, Michigan, an important industrial centre where the Ford Motor Company is headquartered. Dearborn is home to a large Arab American community that now makes up more than 50% of the city’s population, according to 2020 census data. Al Qasimi sought out members of the Arab American community in the city and engaged with her sitters, visiting their homes and photographing them both in their personal spaces and in the public sphere. Through quiet observation, her images offer insight into the layered histories and living culture of the people and places she photographs. As we view the world through her lens, unarticulated norms and beliefs reveal themselves as intrinsic to clothing, objects, and places; as these become apparent, unspoken truths about power, gender, and taste are exposed.

Presented in partnership with the City of Vancouver and generously supported by Pattison Outdoor Billboards.

The Arbutus Greenway Billboards are presented by OmniVita Custom Wealth Mgmt. Inc., and are generously supported by Leslie Lee and John Murphy.